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nearer the establishment of monarchy in the family of Yturbide, would prefer the calling of one of the Bourbons, for which arrangement many steps were necessary. Among them, the acknowledgment of the inde- pendence of the Mexican empire, as it was then called, a measure that found an opposition almost invincible in the Cortes and ip the Spanish government. He who writes these notes was a member of the l\Iexican Congress _ and had been of the Spanish Cortes the year preceding. Consequently he had knowledge of the narrow and obstinate politics of the people of the peninsula and the convictions of the citizens of the cortes. The Almagros and Pizarros would not make such an acknowledgment very enthusiastically [ ?] A year had not passed, nevertheless, since the Spaniards had been thrown out of the l\Iexican territory when Ytur- bide was proclaimed emperor by the common people and the garrison of the capital. Congress acquiesced in this act by violence and subse- quently sanctioned it by a consent less exact. Yturbide had opposed to him as his opponents the Spanish residents in all the territory of :i\Iexico and the Republicans. These united to overcome the Emperor himself and a republic was spontaneously estab- lished among a people who had been educated by the inquisitorial Jesuits and the soldiers. Was it possible to have peace long? Thus it has happened, and since the democratic system was nomi- nally established )Iexico has been the theater of continual revolutions under the leadership of military chiefs. Santa Ana has been the last who has figured on the scene and his name after having been made famous in the interior by his fortunate enterprises has been stained by his bloody conduct of the expedition to Texas. · The Texas territory disputed for many years between the govern- ments of Louisiana and New Spain was definitely annexed to the :Mexican territory by the Treaty of Florida in 1819. After the inde- pendence of )Texico, the Americans and some islanders commenced to colonize this fertile region then inhabited in its greater part by wild Indians and savage beasts. The colonists received the sanction of their possession from the :Mexican Congress, and their rapid progress displays the power of their industry when they do not encounter ob- stacles in the government and in the laws. Luckily, the government of :Mexico was very distant from the active colonies and they pros- pered by the very abandonment in which they found themselves with- out the intervention of soldiers or 1\Iexican authorities.- The colonies were faithful to the established authority, the nominal federation of Mexico, but Santana having destroyed the constitution the Texans said the military power of )Texico would come at once with their legions upon them. [Zava]la from Paris, where he was minister plenipotentiary for )Iexico, renounced this splendid destiny went to Texas to urge war against an ambitious chief and a perfidious government that failed in its most sacred promises. Zavala, l\Iexican by birth, was the first apostle of the war of independence, and it may be said that he was the creator of this new republic.
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